Join Us for the Rum Cellar Campaign this April!

Wow. People got mad.

Let's hope.
If it is an April fools joke, then Cyliena just made sure I absolutely NEVER play poker or any other game with her in which I can lose money (hold a sec...) .
Cyliena announced this on ZAM with, in bold print just as I cut and paste this,

"Yes, we know it's April Fools Day. This announcement is 100% serious. "

Sooooooo, if this is a joke, Cyliena is very, very, naughty....mischeivous even........... and probably a gnome or halfling in RL, despite her high elf avatar.

Do not play poker with her! You will lose everything!

Yeah, because it sorta tugs at their wallets.
And its April, less than two weeks before tax deadlines.

Maybe they could take notes and follow FFXIV's model of new content. No one's complaining over there. Or maybe their massive amount of subscribers is allowing them to give away free content every few months with a large expansion once a year. Probably similar to what EQ2 is doing now except we don't have as many customers to keep the owner being freely creative and generous..

Seriously? 15$ for two instances and one raid? For the thing that used to be free for over 10 years? And after we bought AoM a few months ago?

What I read here is not "having lots of fun with our friends", but let's milk that cow before it's dead.

This is just insulting...I love eq2, I want to stay here, but in WoW I buy expansion once in 2-3 years, in Lotro I basicly get it for free, using Turbine Points (SC).

I believe there is only one way to make such a change acceptable by the community-allow it to be purchased with SC.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!

I remember very well, *painfully* well:

The EverQuest II team is happy to announce the inclusion of a new character class in Game Update 34. This class will be the first class to allow players to start new characters in Haven as an exile. We now introduce you to the Archaeologist

Class Details:
Archaeologists are the first example of 'Master Classes' in EverQuest Ii and will be one of the harder roles to fill. Archaeologists will start out weak initially, relying on stealth, speed, and the Investigation skill that has recently been added to the game. As they gain levels their class skills will include increased combat proficiency with the bullwhip, and pickaxe, and exceptional evasion abilities.

Races Allowed:
Only humans, dwarves, and gnomes may select the Archaeologist class (Arc for short) in Exile.

Tradeskill Synergy:
As master explorers and discoverers, the Arc class will gain a 20% increased chance of harvesting rare tradeskill items, and will benefit from a tradeskill exp. bonus of 1% per tradeskill level.

Signature Quest:
To help starting Arc players, a new Signature Quest starting in Exile will take players through the first 20 levels of experience. The quest involves the search for an artifact known as the Orb of Detection. This orb will grant Arc's increased resistances, and invisibility on command. Archaeologists will be able to maintan their invisibility while harvesting.

New Title System:
In addition, the Arc class will be the first to demonstrate the new Class/Title system which grants players visible titles based upon the level of experience in their class. Here is a peek at the first 30 levels of titles for the Archaeologist class.

• XL 1-2: Digger
• XL 3-5: Field Worker
• XL 6-9: Investigator
• XL 10-13: Exhumer
• XL 14-17: Excavator
• XL 18-21: Spelunker
• XL 22-25: Speleologist
• XL 26-29: Collector
• XL 30: Curator

Class Hat:
Also included in this update will be the Archaeologist Class Hat: The Fedora. Arc characters will start with this hat at first level, allowing us to avoid the time it would take to build the full quest line. It will not be equippable until 65^th level, and is No Trade, No Drop, and No Destory. Due to this perceived bonus of receiving a hat at first level, the fedora will only be half effective if the character is swimming, or it is raining outside your house.

Phobias:
As an added bonus, we have forced the apprentice developers to work hard on including a phobia system into the game. This manifests in a new fear effect in the game which will cause an instant evac to the tutorial islands for any character affected by their phobia.
Archaeologists will have the 'snakes' phobia.
Paladins will have the 'dirt' phobia.
Dirges will be phobic to songs in Major keys, especially from Boy Bands or American Idol.
Other classes will get to learn the hard way.

In Closing:
The EQII dev team is very excited to share this new class announcement with you. The Archaeologist class should be available on the third Tuesday of April, provided the server hamsters hold up. Here is a preview picture of a 70th level Archaeologist to hold you over until then.

So our last GU was in Dec 2013 (GU68).

GUs offered us content on a regular basis for free, in-between purchasable expansions at a reasonable price. This was top-notch in my view.

With the last expansion being at an outrageous price (at least for the CE with no discount), and now with upcoming purchasable GUs (the first one needing the last expansion of course and no option to buy with SC), why am I under the odd impression of being ripped off on and on and on and now even more?

Don't get me wrong, I am not against DLC, but overall the content proposed in the past years has become soooo tiny compared to its overall price that my little finger is telling me something's definitely wrong here.

Never touch a running system...

I hope to god this is an aprils fool.

My pr poop filter activated immediately, it's basically now saying less content for more money at reduced cadence.

I think it would be fun if all Daybreak Games news articles came with a "DBG Stress-O-Meter" where readers could vote for whether this latest news item has increased their confidence that the game will live or increased their heart palpitations over the game's impending demise.

If this is not a April fools joke, then they just put a big nail in the coffin for me. I'm not paying 90 bucks for an xpac I finished in like 3 months, and 15 a month, to add ANOTHER 15 for a DLC that Ill be done with in two weeks, tops. Sorry, your money grabbing is wearing very, very thin with me now.

This will probably be the final straw for me, I support the game by my sub and my wife's sub and buying collectors editions every time they are available. The occasional rounds of sc cards as well throughout the year for not only us but for my two boys accounts, if that's no longer enough for content then its been a wild sometimes fun ride.

Ok, so for all those who are still confused, here is my english translation of the announcement:

"Dear Players,

In light of the recent changes to our ownership and drastic reductions in staff, we have found that our current monetization and content development models simply aren't sustainable. We would nothing more than to continue bringing you more content than any other MMO has in the past 10 years, but unfortunately we simply can't afford to.

With that said, we are making some changes. These changes will allow us to continue providing you with new content - albeit at a slower pace - while still keeping the game running and profitable.

Going forward, EQ2 will no longer have expansions. Our major "live updates" such as you've seen with Scars of the Awakened and Darkness Dawns will now be called DLCs and will sold for cash (not kronos or sc).

We expect that on average, the amount you will spend annually on DLCs will be about the same as you were previously spending on a full expac, only spread out across the year. (Alternatively you can also think of it as live updates being dropped and expacs being broken into 2 or 3 paid pieces - it's really the same idea!).

We recognize that any change that involves making less free content is not good news for players. However these changes are necessary and are being made so that we can continue to develop and release new content for you for years to come. We hope that you continue to support us.

Our first DLC is called [insert something that isn't named "rump" here] and will be available in April! Here are the details...

We are also very sorry about making this post on April 1st. Our cruel masters don't allow us calendars or holidays down here in the mines."

This announcement makes me really think about dropping EQ2 totally and ditching the long time playing of EverQuest games. I was looking forward to EverQuest Next, but now I'll have to re-evaluate if I should ever again fall for DBG's games.

1. Servers do not work, lag is so horrible that raiding is next to impossible and some group encounters too.
2. Customer support has turned into $#"!
3. AoM cost an arm and leg and we were supposed to have "free updates" after it. Now you start charging for stuff we paid for in advance.

I barely see anyone online in guild anymore outside of raids. Also PUGs are hard to come by anymore.
It seems that EQ2 = DEAD.

This.

It really should've been made clear about the future of expansions, as I emphasized above in quoting Arieste's post. Just come right out and say it: "The good news is, you won't have to pay so much all at once in November for a new [that's NEW, not just a couple of new things here and there in an old one; and yeah, I'd like some <100 content, too, please] expansion! The bad news is, you'll have to chip in for development costs as we incur them." No biggie for that; we get that you guys are still achy at the moment and need to catch your breath before plunging on to bigger+better content.

But, before springing this paradigm-shift stuff on us, please make sure it's thoroughly tested (not sure a couple of weeks is enough)? Not just on Beta, but maybe let folks that play on Public Test get the chance to buy it before official release, and hopefully the official release will have less bugs? :-/

Or, even better news: "Don't sweat about paying for monthly subs any more; just buy new content a la carte instead! " (okay, so that last was belated April Fool's on my part ;->)

On the other hand, we all may be misinterpreting; if these are just optional little silly things that if we really have an itch for a new raid area that can't be scratched any other way, we can spring for it if we're feeling flush (though $15 does seem a bit steep), like for a goofy-looking holiday mount or a new prestige home. Something like that, I can relax about. ;->

Uwk

My understanding from the discussion last year is that there were changes made to some US tax law, and now the way Daybreak has to handle the funds paid for unspent SC is a bit of an accounting nightmare. In fact, I'm guessing that the money spent on SC has to be listed as a debt, because until the SC is spent, they have not delivered product in exchange for it.

From Zam's article:

"it was announced that the team will now be releasing content in "campaigns" in lieu of the common expansions and game updates we have become accustomed to in years past."

So now money that was budgeted for the purchase of an xpac can be spent in smaller portions over the course of the year instead.

The only downside I can see to this new model is when they do eventually decide to raise the level cap. It requires a really big effort in terms of development to add a new tier, and I can't picture that costing a mere $15. I'm fine paying for both DLCs and larger expansions. But I just don't see how campaigns in lieu of expansions is a feasible business model.

^^ This, Hubby and I discussed that the minute we read this. That being said, my translation was much shorter:
"Dear Players, we love the game and want to keep the doors open... Breaking out the Yearly expac into bundles will keep players in game and feed the hamsters. Thank you. "

A couple of thoughts that have been spawned by this thread:

• Thanks for posting this while AB is down for 12 hours...plenty of time for this thread to explode.
• I have zero issue with paying for content in smaller bundles, as long as it is relevant...if it spreads the cost over the year. As another poster listed, I'd rather have more overland content, tbh.
• Someone mentioned PUGs and/ or a lack thereof: Yeah, this is a can of worms, a lot go solo these days...why don't some players group?? Folks, be nice. I mean really. There is a player behind the toon. I ran a longtime EQ2 player (server transfer) through some things yesterday that never groups anymore. Her exact comment, "my hubby and I stopped grouping because people just became mean..." She is a sweetheart and had a blast. I have seen some friendly players in this game, but sadly, it seems like they are harder to find.
  • I wish LFG had subclasses we could add: NAJ (Not a Jerk, hehe, I had another suggestion, but I think the forum mod might smack me on the paws).
  • I think there are a lot of friendly players still in-game, it's just that they have resorted to running small group with their guildies or solo to avoid this kind of stuff. People play a game to do what they enjoy.
• Last but not least, that Zeppelin mount. Moors of Ykesha; I hated that cannon, but so loved those Air Balloons. A zeppelin mount, how cool is that? Heck, that might trump a duck mount, j/s

Kitty

I have been trying really hard to stay positive about the game, but since the sale it has been one disappointing thing after another. So this first content will be 15 bucks, for not a lot of content. What will the bigger content packs go for? Yeah some may say that its easier to pay in small chunks rather than in one big chunk but over all what will all those chunks add up to? This is of course on top of a sub for a great deal of us as its really not completely free to play. I have already gone to 1 paid account instead of 3. That one account that use to be yearly is now monthly. Its not that I don't love the game, its still my favorite but I don't have a lot of faith in it at this point.

I am lucky as money really is not an issue for me but I also wont throw money at something I have no faith in. There are many that feel the same way. Since the sale there has not been a lot of information about what is planned and the first thing is well instead of an expansion and free gu's we are going to package and sell the game is small chunks. I have to say I agree with others on the point that we payed for the expansion and any content related to that expansion should be at no cost. To change that mid stream (even though you can do as you like as its your business) is really rather underhanded IMO. To me this all smells of desperation on your part. I am sure most will go along with it in hopes it keeps the game afloat, but to me it just feels like one more nail in the coffin of the game in whole.

So wait wait wait....

You want people to spend 40+ on the expansion, then pay 15 bucks for this...."DLC" on top of it...on top of some people paying a 15/month sub?



Didn't you guys save enough money laying off your customer service department and all your GMs?